My Year Abroad

Closure

2009-03-03T23:43:00.003-05:00

Rapid-fire updates about the last 8 1/2 months: Eurotrip after exchange year was fun, getting back and seeing friends and family was great, college started off well, and I am loving life right now but still have many fond memories of my time in Germany and traveling around Europe.

I'm at the University of Virginia studying Economics and Anthropology (Foreign Affairs? Global Development Studies? Philosophy?) while keeping up with my German and learning a little bit of Spanish. Right now I'm on Spring Break, although with the snow it doesn't quite feel like it. Tomorrow I will be going back to my high school to talk to students there about gap years, which, I hope, will bring this whole thing full circle.

I hope at least a few of you out there have gotten something from this blog. On my end, it was definitely fun to write and is even better to look back on. If you would like to contact me with any questions or comments on any of this, the best way from now on will be to e-mail me: kevinpuj at gmail dot com

I encourage all of you to check out opportunities to do something you've never done before. Students, I urge you to consider whether a gap year would be something for you. It's a fantastic time to get out there. Definitely check out the Congress-Bundestag Exchange Programs, which include programs for college and vocational students, at www.usagermanyscholarship.org

Perhaps a future iteration of this blog will document possible Teach for America or internship abroad experiences. Who knows what is to come. :-P

Take care.

"Public Viewing"

2008-06-20T13:05:00.006-04:00

For those of you following the Euro 2008, the European soccer championship, you already know what a fantastic game it was last night as Germany beat Portugal 3:2. For those who aren't, I'd like to let you know that my (second) favorite national team played brilliantly in the win against the favored Portugese national team.

I watched the game at a "Public Viewing", which is a German term using English words to describe a mass of fans watching a game on a public square. This is a brilliant solution to the German problem of having 30-40 million soccer fans (in a nation of 82 million) who all want to experience the stadium atomsphere but don't fit into the stadium.

In the small city of Gütersloh (pop: 96,000), more than 5,500 fans packed themselves into a small area to cheer on their national team from afar.

A picture of the "Public Viewing Area". You can see the giant screen in front of the old courthouse.

Celebration after the first goal.

After the game, as is popular with the Turkish, Russian and Croation minorities after a win in this tournament, fans got in their cars and hit the streets. They drove through the city for hours honking, waving flags and cheering. A line of cars full of boisterous fans was still crawling by an hour and a half after the end of the game.

I had a great time at the game, and I know I'm pretty lucky to be in Germany during a tournament like this. The only people I'm jealous of are those who got to experience the World Cup here in 2006.

In other news, today was my last day of school. I got my report card, which turned out to be a very good one, and said goodbye to teachers and some classmates. On Sunday I'll be going to Austria with my host parents and one of my host siblings for a week of hiking in the Alps. After that, I'll come back and say goodbye to all of my friends here before embarking on my travels around Europe. Until next time!

Catching up

2008-06-13T15:09:00.007-04:00

A whole lot has happened since my last significant post. A brief update to try to catch up:

Last month, I took a trip to Dresden on a long weekend with my host family. During my first trip into former East Germany (other than brief time spent in the Eastern part of Berlin), I got to experience Dresden, which is a beautiful Saxon city that was a cultural, musical, and architectual center before heavy bombing during World War II flattened cultural landmarks and crippled the city. During 40 years under East German rule, very little was rebuilt and dozens of a type of building called a Plattenbau were erected. The Plattenbau, which was an especially popular method of construction in East Germany, is a cheap apartment building made out of prefabricated concrete slabs.

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An example of Communist-era cookie-cutter apartment buildings.

An example of a beautification project.

The Zwinger, an example of the beautiful architecture that was destroyed during the war but rebuilt afterwards.

The end-of-year seminar in Berlin was a great weekend. We reflected on our year, visited the Bundestag to tour the Bundestag and meet with the respresentatives who organize the government side of the program and prepared ourselves for arriving in the United States and the possibility of "reverse culture shock". Angela Merkel even stopped by and said a few words to all of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange participants.

One of the highlights of the weekend was definitely our thank-you presentation. We sang a spoof of the '80s German hit 99 Luftballoons in front of cameras, a couple hundred other exchange students and the American ambassador to Germany.

Another exciting part of the last few weeks has been the Euro 2008. Every day there's world-class soccer on TV, and there's always something fun to do when Germany is playing. This whole country is absolutely crazy for soccer and it's a great time to be here. Hopefully I'll have another more detailed update about the Fussballfieber here.

Quick Update: End-of-Year Seminar

2008-05-28T06:19:00.003-04:00

Just checking in to let you all know that my End-of-Year Seminar starts today in Berlin. There's a lot planned for this 4-day seminar, including a visit to the German parliament and meetings with the representatives who are responsible for this program. Most of all, it will be interesting to compare my experiences to those of the other exchange students I'll be with. I'll check in when I get back and hopefully by then have some interesting food for thought!

How to Visit a German City

2008-05-19T15:57:00.005-04:00

In my 10 months in Germany I have done a fair bit of traveling and learned a lot--not only about the history and culture of cities, but also about how to best visit a German city. Here are a few tips:

1) Inform yourself. The most important part of an interesting and fun visit to a city is, in my opinion, having the right information. A little bit of basic history (Wikipedia is enough) is often helpful for a framework during guided tours that sometimes rattle off lots of names and dates.

Even more important is knowing what is worth seeing wherever you're going. Sure you can find a list of museums at a tourist information center, but how will you know which ones are worth visiting? Check out sites like Wikitravel, Rough Guides, and Lonely Planet to see what the best Sehenswürdigkeiten ("things worth seeing", one of my favorite longer German words) are. Consider what you're interested in and plan your visit around that!

2) Walk. Most cities I'm familiar with are very pedestrian-friendly and can be visited very well on foot. Almost all have a pedestrian zone in the middle where no cars are allowed at all. In most German cities you can find the Altstadt, the historical district, somewhere near the center. Plan an afternoon stroll and get some ice cream or take an evening walk to get a beer or two and see more of the city.

While walking, you have the time to look around and get a feel for the city and the people there. You also save money and get good exercise!

3) Take public transportation. As I have often mentioned, German cities have the advantage of excellent public transportation. Buses, subways, and streetcars will help you get around quickly and fairly comfortably. Some streetcar lines might be a good alternative to a tour bus if you just want to take a comfortable ride through the city. Look into all-day or 3-day passes that let you ride as much as you want to.

4) Take your time. Plan enough time to properly see the city--one day is not really enough for most cities. Don't plan too many activities on a single day, because at some point your brain just can't take in any more information.

5) Try the local _____. Every German city has at least one local specialty. Many have breweries that are famous in the region and a tour of the brewery would be a great way to spend an evening. Try the local food, drink, or dessert, like Spätzle or Weißbier in Southern Germany or Altbier or Killepitsch in Düsseldorf.

6) Ask. German cities are, in my experience, very tourist-friendly. Most signs in German train stations are multi-lingual. You will be able to find signs and instructions in English in many places. There still are, however, many other places where only German will help you out. In this case, don't be afraid to ask! Most Germans can speak at least some English. Pick someone who doesn't look like they're in a hurry and ask them politely if they speak English and are willing to help you.

For all the other people here who have experience traveling in Germany: what do you think about these tips? Any other recommendations for people traveling to Germany?

May 1st

2008-05-13T07:10:00.005-04:00

May 1st, also known as May Day or International Worker's Day, is a national holiday in Germany. In the name of cultural research, I decided to accompany my classmates and friends during the Tag der Arbeit. This holiday corresponds to Labor Day in the United States.

May 1st is celebrated in different ways around Germany. In bigger cities, May 1st is marked by demonstrations and parades organized by worker's unions. Where I live, people ride their bikes on a Maitour to a meadow or park and celebrate there.

I first met up with two friends from my town to bike over to a friend's house in Gütersloh, where we met other friends for breakfast and started celebrating the "Day of Work".

After a hearty breakfast and a few glasses of Weizen, we set off to meet some other friends in the middle of Gütersloh.

The troop is getting bigger...

After meeting up with yet another group, we left the city in a band of about 40 people. As you can imagine, this requires frequent stops to reorganize the group. In this picture you can see the wagon with some of the supplies for the tour.

Messing around at the Wappelbad, a park next to a river. Here we lounged, chilled and hung out with many other kids we know.

All in all, the "1. Mai" was a lot of fun. I still can't find a connection between the history and the tradition in this area, but there are some things you don't have to question.

Trip to Berlin

2008-05-02T17:22:00.012-04:00

I'm back with some pictures and thoughts about my trip to Berlin. I spent four days the week before last on a Bildungsreise, an "educational trip" in Berlin with Nick, another exchange student, and Wolfgang and Birgit, his host parents.

I was actually really lucky to get to go along on the trip. Every exchange student from my program has a sponsor in the Bundestag, the German Parliament. Nick's sponsor invited him and his family to go on the trip, but Nick's host brother couldn't afford to miss so much school. So, I got to visit a wonderful family in Düsseldorf for a weekend and spend four days in Berlin.

The Jäkels and Nick

The trip turned out to be very interesting. Most of what we saw was focused on the eastern part of the divided Berlin during the socialist East German regime. One thing that stands out on a visit to Berlin is that it has been shaped by its recent history--World War II, the Holocaust, the division of Germany, and the reunification. If you know what to look for, you can see history everywhere in this city.

A row of bricks traces sections where the wall used to be.

Almost all of the wall was torn down immediately after the reunification. A few sections, however, remain standing and have been painted over, most famously the East Side Gallery.

Another aspect of Berlin's history that has left its mark on the city was World War II. Traces of this time are found all over Berlin today, be it the over 1,000 Stolpersteine, which stand in front of houses in which Jews killed during the Holocaust used to live, or be it the scars remaining from World War II.

Picture from Stern magazine

This shows the Reichstag, where the German Parliament meets, at the end of World War II.

This picture shows the Reichstag as it looks today.

Not all of Berlin has been restored. The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche was left a standing ruin as a reminder of the war. Another building was built next to it, but the damaged tower, called der Hohle Zahn (the hollow tooth) is still a landmark in Berlin today.

We then visited the former headquarters of the Staatssicherheit (state security), the East German secret police whose tens of thousands of employees spied on, question, and imprisoned East German citizens. All of the files they kept laid end-to-end would be about 100 miles long. Ever since the reunification, more and more of the files are being made available to those who were spied upon. Some find that friends, coworkers, and even spouses were informants for the secret police.

We also visited a former prison of the Stasi. Here prisoners were tortured psychologically, being questioned every day and not being allowed human contact other than with the interrogators.

The prison grounds.

An example of a van with which the secret police would inconspicuously take captors. Painted on the side of the van are the words "Obst und Gemüse", making it look like a delivery van for fruits and vegetables. Inside are four tiny cells and a seat for a guard.

After a lot of walking and soaking up information and a several pleasant evenings in Berlin, we hopped back in the train to Düsseldorf. Here you can see Birgit and Wolfgang sitting comfortably in the ICE with the display in the background indicating a speed of 250 km/h (155 mi/h).

I'll be back soon with a report from my favorite holiday so far, May 1st.

Has anyone else been to Berlin? What were your impressions?

Multilingual madness

2008-04-15T13:36:00.003-04:00

One question I've gotten on multiple occasions is whether I think in German or English. Without getting too abstract, I'd like to try to explain how it works.

When I speak German, I don't think of sentences in English and then translate them. I kind of open my mouth and German flies out. When I'm trying to express more complicated ideas or when I back myself into a corner during a grammatically complex sentence, I really have to think hard, but I feel like I think in German at the time.

When I speak English, of course I think in English. English is my mother language and it's just natural that way.

But the hardest part to describe is how I think when I'm not talking, for example, if I'm biking to soccer practice or on the train. I guess I could best explain it like this: if I'm thinking of anything language-related that's happened in the past or that will happen in the future (a conversation, something I've read, something I've written or will write), then I think in whatever language that it's in.

But I feel like my consciousness isn't really in any language. When I let my mind wander, reminisce about past events, ponder an important issue in the world today, or wonder what the future will bring, the thoughts just are. They don't need to be brought to words; words are used to transfer ideas between people, while my thoughts are just for me.

What I'm much more interested in is knowing how all of you bilingual and multilingual people out there handle this. For anyone who speaks more than one language fluently, what language do you think in?

Trip to Bavaria

2008-04-06T17:31:00.001-04:00

Hello and welcome back! I hope everyone had a great spring break. Mine was excellent. After a very nice trip to Bavaria in the first week, I spent the second week relaxing and hanging out with friends here.

Just a quick recap of my trip, centered around a select few of the pictures I took.

I started off the 350 mile trip at the train station in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, my host town. This is a view across the tracks of a train station in small town Germany. I've become very fond of traveling by train since I got here, and I'm especially fascinated by the high-speed trains in Europe. The German high-speed train is called the ICE, which stands for "Inter City Express". Deutsche Bahn, the German rail service, has this really terrible habit of naming things with English words.

Picture by Dennis Schollbach

On the route I took to Augsburg, the train reaches a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mi/h). If you're sitting in your seat looking forward, you barely notice anything. Once you look out the window, you realize how fast you're truly going.

The over 2000 year-old city of Augsburg, founded by the Roman emperor Augustus, has, like any other somewhat large German city, a beautiful, historical city center, good public transportation, like the streetcar below, and a huge church.

A streetcar in Augsburg

Downtown Augsburg

The next day, two other exchange students, their host families, and I went to visit a castle in Harburg. The castle is one of the oldest and best-preserved castles in the region, and we had a very interesting tour there.

A view of the Innenhof (courtyard) of the castle

The castle dragon guarding the valuables.

After one of the heartiest meals of my life at a restaurant in Oettingen, we went on to walk off all of the Spätzle, Weizen, and Schnitzel in the nearby town of Nördlingen. The town is one of the few towns in Germany with the historical wall still completely standing. This house is actually partially built into the wall.

The next day it was off to Munich, the 3rd biggest city in Germany and an incredibly popular tourist destination, best known for Oktoberfest, basically one of the biggest parties in the world.

The new city hall in Munich. I walked around a corner and this view just stunned me. So, I took a picture.

The German Museum, which is kind of like the Air and Space Museum, but it focuses on all kinds of science and technology. It does really come across in the picture, but this building is massive.

This is a sign I saw near the University of Munich (which is beautiful, by the way). It's basically advocating the abolishment of the Euro. As I wrote in a previous post, the introduction of the Euro was very controversial and led to a huge increase in the cost of living in Germany.

The text of the poster, loosely translated:
"Yes to a united Europe, but with national currencies!"
"The German mark stood by our sides."
(illegible)
"We demand a referendum for the re-introduction of the German mark!"
"Vote for List 18 at the European elections!"

Ben (one of my good friends here and another exchange student I was traveling with) at the monument dedicate to "die Weiße Rose" a resistance group in Munich during the days of Nazi rule. The leading members of the group were arrested and executed for their anti-Nazi political actions.

A demonstration in Munich against the oppression of Tibetans and the violence in Tibet right now.

A really strange basketball court. The surface is exactly like a normal basketball court, but the court itself is hilly. This was in front of a school in Munich. I wonder if kids actually play there and what kind of basketball results from a court like that.

Every trip to Munich has to stop by BMW Welt and the BMW Museum. OK, the museum doesn't open for another 2 months, so we just gaped in awe at the gorgeous cars in BMW world.

This pretty much sums up the biggest complaint I have about my year here in Germany: the weather isn't so fantastic. That's Ben making his way through wind and snow at the end of March.

All in all, I had a great trip to Bavaria. I got to hang out and travel some with my good friend Ben, meet his wonderful host family, and learn about a new region of Germany. Bavaria is a very charming place with strong traditions, beautiful landscape, friendly people, and great beer. The many different dialects and cultures add to the intrigue of Bavaria. I learned that it's a much more complicated picture than just Bavaria, that Bavaria actually consists of Swabians, Franconians, and Bavarians, all of whom speak different dialects and have some of their own traditions. Furthermore, larger cities like Munich have transcended regional cultures and developed personalities of their own. I would definitely recommend a visit to Bavaria to anyone traveling to Europe.

Regions

2008-03-13T06:55:00.007-04:00

People I meet here often ask me things like:
-"Which cars do they drive in America?"
-"Do people in America like George Bush?"
-"What is school like in America?"
-"Which sports are popular in America?"

My response usually starts with, "Well, it depends where you live, but where I'm from..."

But the situation is often too complicated to be explained with one sentence. Obviously there are going to be many more hybrid cars on the environmentally friendly West Coast than in sparsely populated Montana. Of course the residents of liberal New England aren't going to be quite the fans of Bush that some in his home state of Texas are. Clearly the school system in Fairfax County isn't going to be exactly like the school system in Colorado or even that of neighboring Loudon County. Naturally there are more NASCAR fans than ice hockey fans in the South. But in America, in general? I have no idea.

A couple of weeks ago, this issue of Stern came out.

Picture from www.stern.de

The cover reads "California: the Better America". Of course I was immediately offended that a German magazine called the America I live in the worse America, but I thought I'd give it a read anyway. The article was actually pretty good; it focused on innovation in Silicon Valley and environmentalism all over California.

The article portrays a part of America with which many Europeans can more easily identify. Some Europeans might also find the health care system in Massachusetts or bans on the death penalty in more liberal states great.

These are more examples of the small differences that make it really difficult to describe "what it's like in America", and even more so difficult to give a concise answer to any such question. But in the Cultural Studies class that I helped teach in the first semester, we spent a fair amount of time on this topic, so I had the chance to try to develop some sort of general answer.

We divided the United States up into five regions loosely following the divisions of the US Census Bureau: the South, the Northeast, the Midwest, the West, and the Pacific. Then, the class was divided into five groups, and each group made a presentation about the economic, social, and political characteristics of the region. Of course there are lots of differences within these regions: Northern Virginia, for example, could be considered an island of the Northeast at the edge of the South. But at some point you have to give up detail in order to keep the project doable.

One thing that occurred to me during the activity--apart from the diversity of the nation--is how little I know about how life in other parts of America really is. I've lived my whole live in Northern Virginia, and the only other place I know fairly well is the Midwest because I have so many relatives in Wisconsin. I don't think that life in Texas is really all that different, but I don't have much to judge that on.

The project turned out very well. One of the highlights was a group of German students' mock slang dialog(which actually wasn't all that appropriate for school, but hey, "it's all good").

I guess the most important point to this is to take the diversity that we can see in our own country and realize that this applies to other countries, as well. Of course the political views in Catholic Bavaria are going to differ from those of the industrial Ruhrgebiet in Nordrhein-Westfalen. So, the question, "What is it like in Germany?" is just as difficult.

What are the first things that come to mind when you think of the answer to that question? If the answer is a jovial man holding liter mugs of beer, wearing Lederhosen, and eating pretzels the size of a steering wheel, then you've got a stereotypical picture of a specific part of Germany called Bayern, or Bavaria in English. The truth is, I haven't seen a one pair of Lederhosen in my 8 months here. I suppose this stereotypical image comes from Oktoberfest, the most well-known festival in Germany, but it's not at all an accurate image of Germans in general.

Speaking of Bavaria, also known as the Texas of Germany, I'm taking a train there on Saturday for the first week of spring break. I'll be visiting a friend in Augsburg and then traveling with him to Munich. Hope you all have a relaxing week off! Comments, questions, and discussion are always welcome.

Klassenfahrten und Kurstreffen

2008-03-09T07:18:00.005-04:00

Just thought I'd stop by and write a little bit about two features of German schools that I've learned about this year--Klassenfahrten (class trips) and Kurstreffen (course get-togethers).

I already wrote about the class trip to Spain, which is called a Klassenfahrt in German. The whole class travels together generally every two or three years starting in the 5th or 6th grade. Popular destinations include Spain, France, Berlin, and Prague. Students experience culture and history during the day and the teachers have their hands full with mischevious students at night.

A get-together of all of the students and the teacher of a specific course, called a Kurstreffen, takes place in the higher grades of the schools. A course, for example the music course in the 12th grade, will meet up at someone's house or a bar, drink a beer, and converse. I was at my first Kurstreffen last Wednesday. It was held at a friend's house and turned out well.

The Kurstreffen illustrates a few differences between Germany and America that I've noticed all year. Germans and Americans deal with alcohol completely differently. In Germany, beer and wine are legal at age 16, spirits at age 18. It's not unusual for teenagers to have a few drinks with adults, and above all, alcohol is not nearly as taboo.

The result: a teacher drinking alcohol with students is a customary occurence in the higher grades once a school year at the Kurstreffen. I feel like something like that could get a teacher fired at an American school. It's really just a matter of different perspectives.

What do you think of Klassenfahrten and Kurstreffen? Would it be good for classes at American schools to travel for a week, or is it unfair to expect that all of the students pay so much to travel? Do course get-togethers blur the line between school life and personal life too much? Do these two activities contribute to a better school community?

Learning English in Germany

2008-02-28T08:03:00.004-05:00

I've recently started tutoring a group of four students through my school's "Schüler helfen Schülern" (Students helping students) tutoring program. The program matches tutors from the upper grad levels with students from the lower grade levels and provides a room for one hour of tutoring a week. The students signed up to be tutored in English. Imagine their surprise after they found out that their tutor is an American exchange student!

At the beginning of the first lesson last week, I asked the students what their goals were for the tutoring session and why they think learning English is useful. The students wanted to get good grades, be able to understand music that they listen to, and thought it would be cool to be able to speak another language. But what one of the students said really made me realize something about learning English in Germany: "I have to either learn English or Turkish to have any chance of getting a job here."

Now, the situation the way I understand it is a little more complicated than that. Of course there are lots of jobs for people who can't speak English. But it seems that the aspect of employabilty that foreign language skills affect the most here is mobility. Without knowledge of English, many Germans have trouble climbing the career ladder. On the other hand, there are lots of small businesses founded by Turkish immigrants, which explains why Turkish would help job chances.

This explains the demanding English classes in German school. In the highest grades at my school, students analyze Shakespeare, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and novels in English. Germans often learn 3rd, 4th, and even 5th languages in school, too. English is portrayed as a requirement for getting a good job here, and other foreign languages along with English help even more.

So, for those of you worried about English fading away as the mother language in America, don't worry. You can always come to Germany and get by speaking only English here.

Research Paper

2008-02-23T06:37:00.007-05:00

I'm back! You can blame the short break in posting on the research paper that was due two days ago. In Nordrhein-Westfalen (the state I'm living in), every student in the 12th grade has to write a research paper through one of his or her courses on a specific topic.

One friend of mine, for example, wrote about music in film through his English class, meaning he wrote his whole research paper in English. Another wrote about epilepsy and seizures through his biology class. Through my history class, I wrote my Facharbeit about the expulsion of 12-16 million Germans after World War II, something that I knew nothing about before I came to Germany.

The topic is very controversial and is therefore very hard to summarize, but I'll give it a shot. Throughout history, there have been many groups of German-speaking populations spread throughout Central Europe. Even the wide borders of the German Empire founded in 1871, which were much different than those of the currentBundesrepublik, didn't contain all German-speaking populations in Europe.

Image from Wikipedia. Please click for a larger version.

In addition, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March of 1938, the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, which had a very high German population of over 3 million, in November of 1938, and finally the rest of the "Czech" part of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939.

Image from Wikipedia. Please click for a larger version. The red border corresponds to the border in the first picture, and the dotted bluish border is the border of Nazi Germany in the middle of the war in 1943, not including all of the occupied territories and puppet governments throughout Europe.

After invading Poland in 1939 and the start of World War II, Nazi Germany acquired even more terrritory. The Nazis forced Polish citizens from their homes and settled more Germans in this newly acquired territory.

Then came World War II with all of the horrible atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, above all the 6 million Jews and 6 million political dissidents, homosexuals, handicapped people, and other minorities killed during the Holocaust.

But as the war came to a close and it became clear that the Allies were going to win, the question arose, among others: what should be done with these German populations living in other countries?

Meanwhile, the advancing Red Army caused many Germans living in Eastern Europe to flee. The Allies then set new borders for Germany, which can be seen on the first map in this post. They then decided to expel the Germans from the areas outside of these borders. Families were given sometimes just hours' notice and told they could take whatever they could carry with them.

The numbers are highly disputed, but it's safe to say that at least 12 million ethnic Germans made the long journey from countries like Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the former Yugoslavia. They took whatever they could with them using makeshift wagons and horses.

Upon arrival in Germany, they encountered a situation no better than the one they had just left in Eastern Europe. The country lay in ruins, there were hardly any jobs and there was even less to eat. Most of the expellees sought a new home in West Germany in fear of the Russian government.

After the Wirtschaftswunder (econonomic miracle) in the 1950s, the expellees could finally find jobs and homes in Germany. The expulsion, as well as many other topics about World War II, was still a little bit taboo. It took a backseat to the national guilt about the Holocaust.

From Wikipedia, a picture of Germans expelled from the Sudetenland area in Czechoslovakia.

Now, one finds many families in which a grandparent or relative was expelled way back then, and the issue is no longer taboo. But it, along with all of the atrocities associated with World War II, still have a large impact on the German national identity, and they're something that the modern, democratic Germany really struggles with. Images like the one above are still a very meaningful part of German history.

So that's a short summary of the results of my 2,500 word research paper, and hopefully a good enough excuse for why I didn't post last week.

For the Americans, I'd be curious: who had already heard of this event before they read this blog? I knew absolutely nothing about it until I got here.

Paris on Wheels

2008-02-09T07:28:00.000-05:00

Hey all, just going to report a little bit of this and that from my trip to Paris.

Last weekend I went to Paris with my host brother to vist my host sister. She is studying abroad there through ERASMUS, a program from the European Union that coordinates study abroad inside of the EU. The program guarantees that the students won't have to pay more tuition to study abroad and that the credits earned abroad will be recognized by their home university.

The post is called "Paris on Wheels" because we toured Paris with my host sister in a wheelchair. She tore her Achilles tendon in December and had gotten her cast off the day before we got there.

So we walked (and rolled and crutched) through the streets of Paris like this and took turns pushing the wheelchair. In this picture we're on our way to the Notre Dame cathedral, where we had a picnic.

But being with a handicapped person had its advantages. We got to cut the lines at museums and ride the cool elevator in the Louvre.

The Louvre is, by the way, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. The building itself was actually a lot more impressive to me than many of the paintings. It's so massive that to actually see all of the 35,000 paintings in its collection, you would need over 9 months.

Famous Moulin Rouge, typical touristy picture.

The view from Montmartre, a large hill in the middle of Paris. Fabian is squinting because of the sun. There's a beautiful church behind me and a festive feeling all around. We had a picnic there and enjoyed the atmosphere.

This is a picture of the line outside of the Musee d'Orsay that we didn't have to wait in.

Verena sitting in the wheelchair and Fabian playing with the crutches inside the Musee d'Orsay. I actually liked the art in this museum a lot better than that in the Louvre. The impressionist paintings on the third floor were the most interesting.

The Tuileries Gardens, where we had our third picnic of the weekend. It was just beautiful.

All in all, it was a great weekend in Paris. We got to see a lot of culture, art, breathtaking buildings, and eat a lot of delicious baguettes. Seriously, enjoying a baguette with delicious cheese in the Tuileries Gardens is really something.

What really struck me about Paris as far as the language goes was the lack of English. Although Paris is probably the most popular tourist destination in Europe, there was very little English. Even in the Louvre, the most visited museum in the world, the displays were not very non-native-speaker-friendly. In contrast, many attractions in Germany also have English text under the German text. Is printing the text again in English a sellout to tourism or a hospitable gesture making museums and train stations more available to everyone?

I can really recommend Paris to anyone coming to Europe. The city really does have a charm of its own, even through rampant mass tourism. I guess I can't complain about tourism too much, being a tourist there myself...

PS: If you look to the right, you'll see that my blog has now been visited by people (or bots) from all six permanently inhabited continents! Woohoo!

Cologne and Paris

2008-01-31T14:41:00.000-05:00

So I've been back from Cologne (Köln) since Sunday but my regular posting schedule has been thrown off in the last couple of weeks. I usually find the time to post on weekends, but I was away last weekend and am going to be away this weekend as well.

Meeting the whole group of exchange students for the weekend in Cologne was great. It really is a fantastic group of kids. Although I've been able to meet with many of them during the year, a group of my friends live in Augsburg, Bavaria, and I hadn't seen them since the orientation. It was a blast.

But just because we had fun doesn't mean we didn't learn a lot as well. After comparing our experiences, we really did learn a lot about the diversity of Germany. Just being in one host family gives you the view of the country through that family's perspective. But talking to a friend who lives in a family with Polish heritage or someone who lives with a family who generates all of their own energy and produces all of their own automobile fuel will definitely show you different perspectives.

There's definitely a lot more to talk about as far as diversity inside a country goes, but I'd really like to get into it more in a more specific post. Just to start: how would you divide up the regions of the United States, taking into account social/cultural, political, and economic aspects of the regions?

When I talked about regions with the cultural studies class, I divided the United States up into 5 regions. I'll talk more about it later, but I'd like to hear your opinions.

This weekend I'm going to Paris with my host brother to visit my host sister who's studying abroad there. After we come back, I'll be celebrating Karneval (also called Fasching, a lot like Mardi Gras) in a nearby town with German friends. It's safe to say I'll have a lot to report.

American Culture?

2008-01-22T15:22:00.000-05:00

No, the title doesn't refer to any personal experience of mine. I ran across this post in a bl0g the other day. The post refers more to general experiences with Germans and "insights" into German culture. What really follows seems like a series of shallow observations based on stereotypes that were formed before a short trip to Germany.

Skim through the post and then read this comment from "Manfred", a German guy who ironically speaks by far the best English of all the people weighing in there. His comment very eloquently portrays an unfortunately all-too-common view of American culture: that is, that we don't have much of it, and that it's shallow.

Both perceptions seems to be based on media and short stints in the other country. Granted, both have some basis in real aspects of German and American culture, but I feel that while the latter is much more thought-out and well-worded, both points really present an us-against-them, I'll-judge-you-from-my-couch mentality.

I'd like to hear from you guys about this, especially about what you consider American culture. Music? A melting pot? Our values? Modern art? Football? Baseball? Barbeque?

PS: I'm going to be in Köln, also known as Cologne, for the next 5 days attending the mid-year meeting with the rest of the exchange students from my group. We'll compare experiences and talk about "home", and maybe something interesting will come out of it.

The Awful German Language, or, "Deutsche Sprache, Schwere Sprache"

2008-01-15T07:11:00.002-05:00

In a previous post, I discussed the aspects of German that make it easier to learn, especially for native English speakers. In this post, to the delight of German teachers everywhere, I will talk about the most difficult aspects of the German language. Hopefully I won't scare everyone away from learning German, because it really is worth it.

Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache is a saying in broken German ("German language, hard language") used ironically when difficulties with German come up in a conversation.

So, here's what makes German a difficult language:

1.Gender
In German, each noun has a gender. A word can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. That means that instead of just using "the" for every word, you have three different possibilities if you want to say "The ______ is big." Masculine words use der, feminine words use die (pronounced dee), and neuter words use das.

2. Cases
There are four different cases in German, which indicate the role a word plays in the sentence. You can usually tell which case a word is in based on the article(a word like "the" or "a") in front of the word. That means that there are four ways to say "the" in front of a masculine word, 3 in front of a feminine word, 3 in front of a neutral word, and 3 in front of a word in the plural form.

That means, for the masculine word "man", you would say "the" four different ways, depending on the role of the word in the sentence.

Der Mann ist groß.
The man (subject) is tall.

Ich mag den Mann.
I like the man (direct object).

Ich gebe dem Mann eine Blume.
I give the man (indirect object) a flower.

Die Frau des Mannes ist nett.
The wife of the man ("of" relationship) is nice.

Changing the article (the word "the" in this case) according to the case is called declining a word. In Mark Twain's famous book "The Awful German Language", he says "I would rather decline two German beers than one German noun."

The gender and case working together result in a sometimes very difficult process of trying to decide how to say a word as simple as "the".

Sometimes I'm just a little confused.

3. Adjective endings
Depending on the aformentioned gender and case of a word, along with the article, you have to change the way you end the adjective. Examples using the German word gut, which means "good":

Der gute Mann or den guten Mann

Ein guter Mann or einen guten Mann

4. Plurals
The German words in plural form are much more irregular than the English. You can't just stick an 's' onto the end of a word to make it plural. There's somewhere around 12 different categories of plural words, plus exceptions.

Der Zug and die Züge (the train and the trains)
Die Zeitschrift and die Zeitschriften (the magazine and the magazines)
Der Spieler and die Spieler ( the player and the players)

All of that adds up to many small mistakes for those learning German, but they can get by anyway. A mistake in the adjective ending or using the wrong gender doesn't mean people don't understand what you say, it just means you make mistakes and you always talk a little funny.

Another effect of the complexity of the language is, in my opinion, a larger barrier between classes in German society. Often the people with a lower level of education will simply leave out the word "the" for whatever reason. Maybe it's because they don't feel like declining it, maybe it's because that's the way they always hear it in their group of friends. In any case, it results in very interesting sentences like "Come train station" or "I drive car to airport", which, quite frankly, sound a little bit neanderthal.

Does anyone else notice effects of the complexity of the German language on German society?

For all of you people out there learning German, what do you find is the hardest part about the language?

Münster

2008-01-01T19:21:00.000-05:00

Over the break I've been unterwegs a lot, because I've been taking advantage of a special offer from the Deutsche Bahn. This offer allows me to travel with all forms of public transportation within the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen for just 18€ during the entire winter break, which is a wonderful two weeks long here.

So this is just a recap of my day in Münster last Friday and some (hopefully) interesting things about Münster.

Münster is a city in northern Nordrhein-Westfalen with a population of about 270,000 people, about 50,000 of whom are college students. Next to rich historical and cultural offerings, Münster is famous for being the bike capital of Germany. Special lanes for bikers and special traffic laws make for a very bike-friendly city. College students and businesspeople alike make up the bike-riding population. There are actually far more bikes than people in the city, with about 500,000 bikes at the last survey.

In the bike garage next to the train station. 3,300 bikes fit in this building, with sections marked off just like they are in a parking garage.

More bike stands in the back of the train station.

We started with a visit to the Picasso Museum, where there was an exhibit about real paintings in comparison to forged paintings and had the visitor try to discern real paintings from attempts to copy them.

In front of the St. Paul's Cathedral in Münster. Just inside the door was a stone from a cathedral in Coventry, England. The two cathedrals are part of a partner program for cathedrals unnecessarily and brutally destroyed during World War II in England and Germany.

A picture from the marketplace in front of St. Paul's Cathedral.

After eating some Chinese food (which is unfortunately just not as good here in Germany) we went for a long walk on the promenade in town. Afterwards we went to a bar in the old town and tried a local specialty, but had to leave a little bit earlier than usual to get back home for the night.

In the train station, while waiting for our train home, we played with the toy train set and met a few people doing it. We happened to run across another exchange student, who is from South Africa, and ended up having a very interesting discussion about national pride with another group of Germans, all because of the toy train set.

So, that's a very brief look at Münster. It's actually my favorite city that I've visited so far. The old town is very pretty, and there's a good combination of history, culture, and nightlife. The city is very accessible by foot or on a bike and is great to just visit.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T03:30:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to check in very quickly to wish everyone a Happy New Year let everyone know that I had a great Christmas here. I've been traveling a lot over the break, which explains the abscence of posts. I'll be out of town for a lot of the rest of the break, but afterwards I should have some great stuff to catch up on!

Weihnachtsmärkte

2007-12-16T11:38:00.001-05:00

Before I came to Germany, a friend of mine who used to live in Germany told me that one really nice thing about Germany is the Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmärkte) that are open for most of December.

The Christmas markets, along with many other traditions and sweets, make Advent a really nice time of year in Germany, despite the not-so-fantastic weather. Old town centers and marketplaces decorated with bright lights host residents braving the cold December nights.

I've been to four Christmas markets so far, and each one has its own flair. The Adventskrämchen in Rheda is small and family-oriented.

I walked through the one in Gütersloh, the next town over, and it seemed alright.

The Christmas market in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, was pretty big, but it seemed to lack a certain atmosphere.

The best one I've been to is the one in Wiedenbrück, called the Christkindlmarkt. It's nestled between historic buildings and takes up the entire plaza in the town center.

All kinds of stands surround the beautiful tree in the center. Our neighbors have a stand in which they sell their copper and glass artwork, there's food stands, drink stands, arts and crafts stands, clothes stands, and, of course, Glühwein stands. Glühwein (literally: glowing wine) is the staple drink of a Weinachtsmarkt. Glühwein is wine combined with spices and served hot, often mixed with liquor. It is delicious and perfect for the aforementioned cold winter nights.

This stand has absolutely delicious baked potatoes. A potato smothered in butter and cheese always hits the spot at the Weinachtsmarkt.

Along with lots of opportunities to eat, drink, and shop, there's a small stage where various oompah bands, singing groups, or brass bands play mostly Christmas music.

They also somehow managed to squeeze a carousel through the small alleys leading to the town plaza. My host parents and I decided that I'm a little too old to ride it, but it really did look like fun...

Wiedenbrück just looks nice at night during this time of year.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful December. Dress warm, don't catch a cold, and feel free to leave a comment!

PS: Do we have anything like a Christmas market in America? I've never seen one but I'm not sure if there is one somewhere.
PPS: What do you think about the new layout? Anyone have suggestions for the appearance of the blog itself or features that I should add?

German is Easy

2007-12-08T07:59:00.000-05:00

"German is easy." Definitely a bold statement. I don't think it's true, but there are definitely some elements of the language that make it easy for English learners:

1. Spelling
Spelling in German is straightforward. No student of German has ever had to learn a rule like "i before e except after c and in words that rhyme with..."

2. Pronunciation
I find pronunciation in German much easier than in English. Read a word just like it's written and you'll pronounce it correctly almost all of the time. The main exception to this is found in French words that have been imported into German, like Portemonnaie, a kind of wallet, or Kampagne, a campaign.

3. Vocabulary words
If you can speak English, you already know a bunch of very impressive-sounding German words.

Take any abstract term, scientific term, or political philosophy, spell it just a little bit differently, pronounce it differently, and you've got a German word, and you'll sound highly educated.

the agitation = die Agitation ah-gee-tah-zee-ohn (used mainly in a political sense)

the inflation = die Inflation in-flah-zee-ohn

anti-Americanism = Antiamerikanismus an-tee-ah-mehr-ee-kahn-ihs-moos

4. English is a Germanic language
English is very closely related to German. In addition to the above vocabulary words that have been brought back over to German, there are many similar words that stem from the common ancestor of the two languages. "Tür" and "door" and "Grab" and "grave" are just a couple of examples.

For you polyglots out there, what do you think? What makes German easy for English speakers? What makes German difficult for English speakers?

Stay tuned for the coming post "German is Hard, or "deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache".

Anti-Americanism

2007-12-05T15:52:00.000-05:00

In the time leading up to my arrival in Germany, I got more and more anxious about encountering a lot of anti-Americanism here. George W. Bush, the War in Iraq, and perceived unilateralism in general have led to fairly negative American sentiment throughout Europe, with Germany appearing to be a stronghold. In Germany, the number of people holding a favorable opinion of America has fallen from 78% in 2000 to 37% in 2006.

I thought I would have to do some winning of "hearts and minds" of my own.

But since I've arrived here I've encountered less anti-Americanism than I expected. I've been met with just about nothing but hospitality. From my first experience out in German society to my arrival here in Rheda to everyone who's helped a slightly confused American understand a schedule, a system, or a tradition, my experiences have generally been positive.

That said, politically, the Germans are, in general, very critical of America and the American government, I do get called "Ami" here, but I generally don't find it offensive at all. Germans do, as referred to in an earlier post, tend to have an image of America developed through media.

But I think what the Germans do understand is that there's a difference between a government and its citizens. Although they are almost all completely opposed to George Bush, they don't take it out on me. It really seems like it's a lot easier for people of different cultures to understand each other with just simple person-to-person contact. Maybe that's why this whole exchange this could be a good idea, after all.

Archrivals

2007-11-26T11:45:00.000-05:00

Before I left I told many of you that I would be going to Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany. I've spoken about living in Rheda in many of my posts. What's the difference?

The little hyphen there between Rheda and Wiedenbrück is a lot more controversial than it might seem.

Up until recently, Rheda and Wiedenbrück were separate towns. In fact, Rheda-Wiedenbrück's history is dwarfed by that of Rheda and Wiedenbrück. Wiedenbrück was first a town in 758 AD, while Rheda first got its rights as a town in 952.

Wiedenbrück marketplace

That means that Wiedenbrück is more than 1000 years older than the US itself. This kind of perspective is hard to keep in mind walking through the cozy little marketplace or "old town" of either Stadtteil.

Throughout the long history, a sort of rivalry developed between Rheda and Wiedenbrück. The way I understand it is: people from Rheda were typically Protestant workers while people from Wiedenbrück were typically Catholic merchants.

Through the history of Germany, and all of Europe for that matter, there was always tension between Catholics and Protestants. Religious and cultural difference are hard to differentiate from each other, but in any case, the towns became even fiercer rivals.

Fast forward to 1970. German bureaucracy wants to reorganize the district and town lines. Rheda and Wiedenbrück, longtime rivals, are now one town. First there's controversy on what to call the new town: Rheda-Wiedenbrück? Wiedenbrück-Rheda? In which town should the town hall be?

Now everything has settled down, the city hall, unfortunately the ugliest building in the town, is in Rheda, and the heated rivalry has turned to a more friendly one. Still, if you want to start an argument in a pub, at a party, or in a classroom, all you have to do is shout "Rheda is better than Wiedenbrück!" and sit back and watch.

As for me, living in Rheda, I've got to defend my adopted home town. But really, both towns have advantages and disadvantages, both are nice towns, and there are nice people in Rheda and Wiedenbrück.

But, we've got the train station and the castle in Rheda. Take THAT, Wiedenbrückers!

At the Movies

2007-11-19T10:51:00.001-05:00

So I've only actually been to the movies a few times since I got here, twice at the smaller local theatre that plays artsier films and one at the big chain theater right next to the train station. The first time I saw a German movie about a crazy piano player in a female prison, the second time I saw Rush Hour 3 in German, and the third time I saw a French movie about the Way of St. James, a recently popular pilgrimage in Europe.

Anyway, the most interesting trip to the movies from a cross-cultural point of view was going to watch Rush Hour 3, an American movie with Jackie Chan and Cris Tucker. It was kind of eye-opening to see how America often comes across in movies.

First of all, nothing translates perfectly. That said, the types of things Chris Tucker says in Rush Hour 3 translate absolutely terribly. His German voiceover had an ever higher-pitched voice than he does, and all of the slang translates terribly.
Jackie Chan's part wasn't all that great either. The combination of the two led to a ridiculous display of two main racial groups in America. But the biggest thing I noticed is just how ridiculously America comes through in movies (in any medium, for that matter--TV, music, and magazines, as well).

But it kind of makes sense. Even within America you can get very false impressions about the way things are. I think even Americans have a false impression of Southern California or New York or the South or whatever area just based on movies. Movies essentially show exaggerated versions of stories, of stereotypes, of people, because the average isn't interesting enough.

But don't even get me started on what people see in MTV. One of my classmates always teases me with ridiculous generalizations about what he saw on MTV because he knows he can get me worked up.

It's just a little disappointing in general that some of my least favorite parts of America (bad music, fast food, and superficial pop culture) are the parts that make it over the Atlantic.

Bremen und Bremerhaven

2007-11-09T12:25:00.004-05:00

I'm here with the promised update about my weekend. Last weekend was a 4-day weekend here and my host family and I spent a couple days on the north coast of Germany in Bremen and Bremerhaven. We visited one of my host sisters, who goes to college in Bremen.

Last weekend was the closing weekend of the Freimarkt (literally: free market) in Bremen, one of the biggest and oldest festivals in Germany. First celebrated in 1035, the Freimarkt now attracts over 4 million visitors a year. The scale of this festival is absolutely incredible. What started off as a time of year where merchants could sell their goods with fewer restrictions has turned into what is literally called a "5th season" in Bremen.

Roller coasters, a giant ferris wheel, hundreds of brilliantly-lit stands, and giant party tents light up the giant plaza next to Bremen's Central Station.

Bright lights and spinning bodies at the Freimarkt.

Ridiculously high swings. I mean, ridiculous.

The biggest portable Ferris wheel in the world.

The next day we went to the Deutsches Auswanderer Haus (German Emigrant House) in Bremerhaven. The museum portrayed the journey of European emigrants to a better life in past centuries. It was an excellent museum, so good that it won the European Museum of the Year Award this year. They recreated the port, the insides of various ships that brought emigrants to America throughout history, and the scene upon arrival in the immigration office.

They had some of the questions from the immigration test. Luckily, I passed. Hopefully America will take me back next year.

After we "made it" into the country, there were some interesting maps and figures about the two countries. Looking at a map of German settlement of the United States, it's amazing to see what an effect German immigrants have had on America. German remains the largest ancestry group in the United States, with most of German immigrants having settled in the Midwest or Northeast regions of the United States.

Overall the experience was especially powerful when I thought of my ancestors who could have been in conditions just as cramped with an outlook just as bleak just trying to make their way to a better life.

Halloween and Allerheiligen

2007-11-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

Happy belated Halloween! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and a great weekend. Halloween is certainly an interesting holiday here, and is the center of a small culture clash between generations. Halloween has just come about as a holiday here (exported from the good ol' US of A) in the last decade or so. Of course the little kids have a great time dressing up and going trick-or-treating (Süßes oder Saures!), and the German youth love another reason to have a party, but many find the idea of getting candy from strangers very strange.

The day after is Allerheiligen, or All Saints' Day, which is very interesting here. Where I live, families usually take a walk to the graveyard in which their relatives are buried and place a candle on each grave of a dead relative. Everyone is out and about, and you run into a lot of people you know. It's an interesting community experience and a great way to remember the dead.

In the next several days I'll post a more detailed update of my weekend with pictures. Until then...

Paderborn

2007-10-28T16:06:00.000-04:00

Last weekend (20th and 21st) I went to nearby Paderborn. I was there to help out with the interviews with the students who are applying for the Congress-Bundestag Scholarship to participate in an exchange to the United States.

I definitely got a lot out of the weekend. One of the strangest feelings was knowing that not too long ago I was on the other side of those interviews, that I had those same questions, that I wanted to be an exchange student.

I was basically there to answer any and every question the students had about life in America or being an exchange student. Talking about the best parts of an exchange, such as all of the funny little cultural differences, the new people, the challenges, and the rest of those general-and-cheesey-sounding-but-completely-true things really reaffirmed my confidence in my decision to do this exchange year.

It was also interesting to see the objects that they had to bring to represent their hometown. It's charming how each little German town has so much pride in whatever speciality or festival it's famous for. You can add that to the list of charming things about Germany: train rides, Sunday afternoon coffee and cake, the cobblestone pedestrian zones in the middle of cities, and hearing Germans try to pronounce the word "squirrel".

On top of all that, I got to see another nice city in Germany.

The cathedral in Paderborn, one of the most Catholic cities in Germany.

A fountain in the Füßgängerzone (pedestrian zone). I think it's funny that Germans who have been to America find the malls the coolest places to shop and Americans who go to Germany find the outdoor version awesome.

American Teatime

2007-10-22T12:54:00.002-04:00

Hello and sorry for the two-week abscence (the dates in this blog are international, so the 9.10.2007 you see below isn't from September 10th). Everything is still going along just fine over here, I'm still alive, still learning, and still sharing what I can from the good ol' US of A.

A week ago Sunday two of my American friends (who are also exchange students from the same program) came over to my house for some German-style Sunday afternoon cake and tea. Many German families do this every Sunday at home or go over to a friend's house for an afternoon of tea, coffee, cake, and pleasant conversation. I think it's really charming. We added an American twist to our Kaffee and made pancakes (albeit German pancakes) and ate some of the delicious cookies from our care package.

Pouring tea and such.

Our midafternoon feast. One of the pancakes turned into a crêpe. Other than that I am beast at flipping those enormous, thin German pancakes.

Anna and Jes sipping herbal tea.

Anna looking pleased and satiated after teatime.

After that we took a walk through the city and shared our experiences so far. It's crazy to think that as of today I've been in Germany for three months. I've also got some pictures and things to say from this weekend, but I'll catch up on that a little bit later.

Keepin' on keepin' on

2007-10-09T09:34:00.000-04:00

Just a little general update on my experience abroad:

Yesterday my Betreuer (the volunteer from the exchange program who lives in my area, each student has one) came over to check up on everything here and do an interview to make sure everything is ok. Everything is great. My host family and I get along very well and there's very good communication between us.

Today, after a pretty cold bike ride to school (looking at the weather report for Virginia is a little sad), I took a philosophy exam. Understanding and writing about Immanuel Kant and his philosophy in German is definitely a challenge, but the teacher is nice and will probably cut me a break.

I also stopped by an English class in my grade and talked about segregation, civil rights, and the current racial situation in America. It's pretty difficult to answer a question like: "Is there equality in America?"

Later in my social science/econ class, we were talking about inequality, how to measure it, and the causes of it. During the course of the class, the teacher asked who was responsible for correcting inequality when they see it. Immediately just one other student and I responded "society" while the rest of the students who responded said "the government."

I got to thinking: would "the government" have been the typical answer in America? Maybe the Germans have on average more trust in the ability of the government to fix problems. What would you (Americans, Germans, or any others) have said in this situation? Please sign your comments so that I can see who wrote them (I still don't know who wrote a comment on the Spain post (jagdgeselle?) and a comment on the Brussels/Aachen post (anonymous), so if you know, let me know).

As always, comment, email, and take it easy.

Brussels, Aachen, and more Fall Break

2007-10-04T12:09:00.000-04:00

I've been on the road a little bit since the last entry. Mainly I didn't update at the beginning of the week because I was kind of busy being in Brussels. The trip was great, even though the weather didn't quite cooperate all the time. We took a road trip from home base in Rheda through Germany into the Netherlands and then down into Belgium all the way to Brussels. The great thing about Europe is that another country is rarely more than a car trip away.

We stayed in my host cousin Sven's apartment in Brussels. He used to work for the European Union Parliament and now he works for the EU Commision. He's also fluent in German, English, French, and Polish. He was nice enough to take us in for a few days and show us around.

First we took the typical touristy path through Brussels, bringing us to all of the most important sights in Brussels, mainly...

...a tiny statue of a peeing man, the origin and meaning of which is contested. There's apparently several legends explaining this one, but for some reason, it's a ridiculously popular landmark.

After that we went to the Atomium (picture here from Wikipedia, I couldn't get a good one myself), which was constructed for the 1958 World Fair and stayed simply because it's awesome. For you TJ kids out there, its shape is that of an iron crystal. The thing is as tall as a football field, and the shafts are filled with escalators and elevators, while the spheres are filled with displays, pictures, and a restaurant.

My host mother, father, and brother in the escalator.

Then it was on to lunch and a tour of the EU complex. It's so huge and has so many different parts for all of the different departments you can't really take a picture of it. This is a picture of just one wing of the EU building. Afterwards we went to some semblance of a "gift shop" where you could really just grab all kinds of EU pamphlets, maps, posters, etc. for free. I have a booklet smaller than my thumb that tells me (in German) what all of my human rights in the EU are.

Me in front of the Royal Palace of Belgium.

After a whirl through the King's Park, we stopped in this cozy little shop for coffee, tee, and chocolate.

The son of the mom-and-pop owners fixes up a box of chocolates wearing a white silk glove.

On the way home we stopped for an afternoon in Aachen, home to fountains, natural spas, and a beautiful cathedral, in which the remains of Charlemagne (Karl der Große, in German) lie.

The tallest stained glass windows in Germany or Europe or maybe the world. I forget. In any case, it was beautiful.

After the tour of the cathedral we went to the Schatzkammer (treasury of the cathedral). Here's me next to the bust of Charlemagne, shortly before being scolded through a loudspeaker for taking a picture. Among other things, there were body parts of saints, relics of Jesus' time (including Jesus' belt), gold chalices, paintings, sketches, and gold everything.

Outside the cathedral on the plaza...

So that's it for my slideshow-like blog posts from fall break. Life goes back to normal next Monday when I start school again. I hope all is well by all of you. As always, comments, emails, love notes, phone calls, and everything are welcome. Take it easy.

Spain, Birthday, Ferien

2007-09-24T04:51:00.001-04:00

So quite a lot has gone on in a relatively short time since I last wrote. Where to start, where to start...

Last Saturday started with another visit to the soccer stadium in Bielefeld, this time with 14 other American exchange students. The experience in the fan block of a Bundesliga game once again did not fail to deliver. Honestly, if any of you are ever in a country that loves soccer (all of Europe and Latin America...) , I cannot recommend strongly enough picking up some cheap standing room-only tickets in the fan section of the local team and just expereriencing (and taking part in) the atmosphere and enthusiam.

After the game I had to hustle back to Gütersloh to meet up with the rest of the students from my grade level to begin our wonderful 20+ hour bus ride to Tossa de Mar, a town on the coast of Spain near Barcelona.

We arrived, got out of the bus, and were amazed by the tremendous weather. It is just beautiful there. After spending the rest of Sunday exploring the town and getting settled in, we spent Monday lounging on the beach.

Tuesday we hopped back in the bus and went to...

...Figueres, where I saw this graffiti (in English?). Catalonia, the region in which we spent the entire week, is an "autonomous community" of Spain. They speak a different language, called Catalan, that is similar to Spanish. The capital and heart of Catalonia is Barcelona. As you can see from this picture, there's always rumblings about Catalonian independence. (First someone wrote "Catalonia is Spain!", then another person added a "not", then someone painted over the "not"...and so on) In Figueres we visited the Salvador Dali museum. The man seems sometimes brilliant sometimes just plain weird, and more of the latter.

After that, we bussed over to Girona, the capital, where we wanted to visit this cathedral...

...until we found out that the entrance would cost 5 euros. No thanks!

So we walked along the outer walls of the city. This picture is taken from one of the guard towers, and the people down below are my classmates.

On Wednesday we traveled to Barcelona to sightsee, shop, and hear constant warnings from our teachers and bus driver about pickpockets, although no one came close to being robbed.

First we stopped by La Sagrada Família, a basilica which, like much of what we saw in Spain, is under construction.

We spent the next while strolling down La Rambla, a 1.2 kilometer long strip of shops, street performers, restaurants, booths, and stores. I think this street performer could juggle better than anyone in America.

The Christopher Columbus memorial. I don't think this picture accurately shows how tall this thing was...

In any case, it's pointing to America, and so am I. Hi guys!

The busy harbor in Barcelona, Spain. Some guys got together 5 Euros to get Jörn to jump in, and he did. It's not such a big deal for him though, because he just so happens to swim in such water every time he participates in a triathlon.

My 18th birthday started at midnight the next day on the beach (shortly after our class was thrown out of the room and dance floor we had rented in a nearby hotel for a dance party...we were too loud) celebrating with all the kids from my grade and continued with a whirlwind tour through Spain and France to crossing the border to Germany shortly before midnight.

After getting home at 7 the next morning and sleeping just a bit more, I had my birthday party Saturday night outside at my house here. It was beautiful outside and it was a fun evening. After cleaning up the next day, my host grandparents came over for Kaffee, the German equivalent of tea time.

We ate delicious cake, drank tea and coffee, and conversed for several hours. After that we grilled bratwurst, ate, and talked more. At the end I drank Jägermeister (German liquor) with my host grandpa, my host grandma, and my host dad as a toast to my birthday.

And now up to the present: today begins my two week fall break. This week I'm planning on relaxing and spending time with my little host cousins (the ones from a previous post) and next week I'm going to Brussels with a stop in Aachen on the way. As always, comments, questions, and discussion are welcome!

Janusz-Korczak Gesamtschule

2007-09-14T16:11:00.001-04:00

Hello all and I'm writing today with good news! I'm leaving later today for the class trip to Barcelona, Spain. They found space for me, so I'll be able to celebrate my 18th birthday next Friday in Barcelona. Not to mention that the scholarship picks up the tab for a class trip. But before that, I'm going to Bielefeld this afternoon for another Arminia Bielefeld game. There's just such atmosphere in the stadium, I can't get enough of it. I'm also looking to go to the stadiums in Dortmund and Munich sometime this year.

Speaking of my class trip, school, and a smooth segue, I took some pictures of my school.

"Janusz-Korczak Gesamtschule : Ohne Kinder wäre Nacht"
(Janusz Korczak was a children's author, teacher, and ran an orphanage during WW2. "Ohne Kinder wäre Nacht" translates directly to "Without children would be night")

Instead of a big parking lot (or a not big enough parking lot, as the case was at my school in America), they have lots of bike racks. A bike is a lot more a means of transportation and a lot less a hobby here.

You may have noticed the word "Gesamtschule" at the end of the name of the school. I'll explain this, but first a step back with a more general look at the German secondary education system, or at least what I understand of it at this point. Those of you who know more than I do about this, please let me know if I'm mistaken.

In Germany, the secondary school system is stratified after kindergarten and four to six years (depending on the state) of elementary school. The students are then divided based on the recommendation of the teacher and move on to Gymnasium (8-9 years), for the strongest students who will complete the Abitur (end of high school test) and go on to study at a university, Realschule (6 years), for intermediate students, or Hauptschule (6 years), for students who will pursue vocational education.

A Gesamtschule is a combination of all three. Some students leave after the Abschluss in 10th grade, which is the end of mandatory education. They then pursue vocational training, internships, or work. Other students continue and work towards their Abitur and continue their studies at a university.

It's hard to describe in text and it still looks convulted in a picture. What do you think? Is it better to have specific schools to prepare students for specific paths? Or is it unfair to judge a student after elementary school? Which system do you think serves the students better?

Altstadtfest und Bevölkerungsdichte

2007-09-09T12:39:00.000-04:00

Hello to all of you on a nice, relaxing Sunday here. This weekend was the Altstadtfest (old city festival) in Rheda, which is a lot like a county fair in America, except there's more music (modern music and oompah bands), more beer, and less flashy lights. Unfortunately, because of the moody weather in Germany, the festival wasn't as well-attended as it could have been, but it was still fun, especially by one of the live music stages.

Today I went for a bike ride to see if I could find my way to school on my own (the bike routes to school are way different than the streets). I found a good example of the difference between the population density (Bevölkerungsdichte, like in the title of the post) in Germany and America.

In Germany the landscape can go from something like...

...cows in a meadow...

...or crops in field...

...to inner city in a couple of kilometers (don't the buildings in Germany look so quaint?). Here there's not as much suburban sprawl as there is in America, at least from what I've seen. So, in Germany, it's more likely to be a densely populated city, a village, or farmland, whereas in America, there's a lot more suburban area. Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to bike to school. We'll see how that goes. Until next time...

At a Glance Comparisons: America and Germany

2007-09-06T13:01:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! I was just preparing something for the cultural studies class I teach and I thought it might be of interest. As always, please don't strain your eyes. Click anywhere on the picture for a bigger version.

Some of the most interesting numbers to note are the differences in size (America is 27.5 times as big as Germany) and population density (Germany is about 7.5 times as densely populated as America).

This map here compares GDPs of American states to GDPs of countries around the world. Instead of printing state names on the map, whoever made the map put names of countries with similar GDPs. Interesting for a little bit of perspective.

Money

2007-09-02T12:08:00.000-04:00

Hello hello! I just thought I'd stop by with another wonderful update. Recently for me it's been a lot of soccer, school, and socialization. I'm training with FSC Rheda, the local team here. The training in Germany is a little bit different and a little bit more strenuous than it is in America. I didn't have a huge soccer vocabulary when I got here but it's all coming along. At the very least I get to play good soccer with cool kids three times a week.

I was talking with one of the kids from the team about the money here, and he was telling me how hard it was when the Euro, the currency for 13 of the 27 countries in the European Union, was first introduced in 2002. Apparently you could exchange two Deutschmark for a Euro, but the prices stayed about the same. It was really hard on lots of people in the area.

Now the Euro a very strong currency, which is bad for exchange students like me. The going rate is 1 Euro to 1.36 US dollars. It's deceiving when you see a price somewhere and think it's a great deal, until you do a little bit of mental math. On top of that, Euro bills look like Monolopy money and Euro coins are really valuable, both of which I'm not used to. I think this makes me subconsciously undervalue money here. I've got to be careful...

That one little coin is worth just as much as the whole stack of coins back home.

That Monopoly money there is worth more than you think...

The only good news with money is that it's really easy to withdraw money here through Bank of America. With an account there I can withdraw Euros at any Deutsche Bank without fees. It also works with various banks in France, the UK, Mexico, Canada, etc. Really cool.

I could use a little bit of help with this last thing. I want to teach my English class some cool and funny slang phrases and words in English. I want to at least teach them some things they won't find in a textbook or a newspaper. Any ideas? School appropriate, please. Leave me a comment as soon as you've got an idea!

Settling in

2007-08-25T04:44:00.000-04:00

So I'm settling in here more and more in Rheda. School is slowing down to a regular pace and it's becoming less and less of a strain to understand everything going on in class. I can understand more and more of songs in German that I've listened to for months. Immersing myself in the language is really helping my comprehension.

I'm now teaching three times a week at school and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. Two times a week I have an English class and once a week I teach a cultural studies class. The students seem to enjoy it and it's rewarding for me. It's also good to be able to present my view of America and the world to students who usually only experience it filtered through mass media.

Now for some pictures...

Some of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning was spent with the host cousins. They are really cute, very energetic, and a lot of fun. We played the Swedish lawn game Kubb, which is actually really popular here in Germany (shout out to Bojö).

I spent Saturday afternoon and night in Bielefeld with my host sisters and my host brother. First we went to see a Bundesliga (German professional football [soccer] league) match between Hertha Berlin and my new favorite DSC Arminia Bielefeld.

Before kickoff, everyone singing.

Bielefeld scores! 1:0. DSC Arminia Bielefeld ended up winning 2:0 and was in 2nd place at the end of the day. I hope all of us Bielefeld fans took pictures, because that won't last too long, the 30-plus game season is only just underway.

Just a map with Rheda-Wiedenbrück marked. The dark points are larger cities. Just southwest of me you can see the Ruhrgebiet, a highly industrialized area of Germany.

That's about it. As always, feel free to comment, and keep in touch.

Rheda

2007-08-21T09:54:00.000-04:00

Hello, hello! Here I am with my second post from my host family here in Rheda. The last week (and a couple days) has been a whirlwind of activity while at the same time a tremendous experience so far.

Last last Saturday (the 11th) I took a train from Geisenheim (where we had the orientation camp) to Rheda, where my host family was waiting for me at the train station to pick me up. Once we got home we sat in their beautiful backyard garden, ate, relaxed, and got to know each other a little better.

About 36 hours after I first arrived here I got up for my first day of school. Somehow the day before a blood vessel in my eye popped at the local swimming pool. I was ecstatic to be going to school the first day with a slightly swollen, bright red eye. But I figured there wasn't much I could change about it (plus when I smile no one can see my eyes anyway) so I went on to school.

Fabian, my host brother who has awesome hair, and I on the first day of school. Note the apple and sandwich mama packed, and the cultural difference, like the picture with Alex in an earlier post, about when to smile in pictures.

As far as school goes, the kids are in general nice and very hospitable. I don't have any course requirements but I have tests and grades just like any other student there. I'm taking courses in philosophy, music, German, English, education, SoWi (kind of like psychology/economics), computer science, and a beginning Spanish course with the grade below me. I'm also helping teach a 10th grade English class two times a week which is turning out to be a lot of fun. My grade is going on a class trip to Barcelona at the end of September, and it's possible there will be space for me on the bus. The scholarship I'm here with allots a certain amount of money for class trips, but we'll have to see...

There's just so many topics here that I could post about, but that's about it for the overview. Feel free to comment, email, ICQ, facebook, or whatever. Just keep in mind with the comments that this is a very public blog. People of all ages on both sides of the Atlantic check in. Take it easy!

Max the Egg, part 2, and Move-in

2007-08-13T13:08:00.000-04:00

So, for those of you who read the last post, you know that little Alex's dad turned out to be vice president of the Schloss Johanissberg winery (the winery that invented ice wines). Turns out he is also the head winemaker/Kellarmeister in their cellar. It also turns out he is one of the most hospitable people I have ever met. Wednesday night he took us on a tour of the two cellars of Schloss Johannisberg, one about 300 meters from the castle, one directly under the castle itself.

One of the most striking things about Germany is how the definition of "old" changes. The wine cellar directly under the castle is old any way you measure it. It was first constructed in the 12th century. Thanks to Drew for this picture. I'll edit this post a little bit later with more pictures.

My breath froze down there even though it was about 70 degrees outside because of the ridiculously high humidity. While we were down in the cellar we walked up to the locked up "wine library" there. The Kellarmeister explained how the wine was spared during both world wars because officers stayed in the castle and "guarded" the wine. We also saw a bottle from about 1748 or thereabouts, or, put in another way, older than our country. We also got to taste eight or nine wines. He did all of this out of the goodness of his heart after the wine store was closed with no expectation that we would buy anything. But he really did show us that the Riesling that comes from the Rheingau is some of the best wine in the world. His hopsitality was another tremendous welcome to Germany.

When I get a few more pictures I will edit this post. Other than that, all I have to say is that I moved into my host family on Saturday and started school today. I'll do an update on that sometime soon but for now it's safe to say that my host family is awesome and everyone at the school is very nice and accommodating.

Max the Egg

2007-08-05T04:34:00.000-04:00

Max the Egg. Friday afternoon. The teachers and RAs would not tell us what this activity on our schedule even meant. We all met outside the school at two. We separated into groups of five and they explained our task. Each group got an egg with a face drawn on with a Sharpie. We had four hours to trade that egg for the most valuable and interesting items we could. My group went out to the local community soccer field and started by playing soccer with some younger kids there. Halfway through our little soccer game another group came by and they had already traded their egg for a 400€ pair of skis. My group decided there was no chance we could outdo that in terms of monetary value so we just decided to have fun with it. What we ended up with was easily my best day so far in Germany.

After explaining our contest to the kids at the soccer field, an eight-year-old (or, almost-nine-year-old, as he said) named Alex decided he would try to help us. What started with a simple game of soccer and a conversation turned into a whirlwind tour of Johannisberg (the nearby town) from the outgoing and cute Alex. As we were walking, he biked lazy circles around us on his bike and demonstrated some of his English skills ("onetwo...'leventwelvefourteenfiveteen...twentytwotwentyfour"...he seems to have a problem with threes). He took us to all of his friends' houses. I was amazed by how happy all of the Germans in Johannisberg were to let us in, make trades, and just talk to us. We even got a full tour of a house originally built in the 14th century with engravings and paintings on the wall from 1636. Realizing that this woman's house was about three times as old as our country was kind of a funny observation for me and my friends.

After four hours of running all around Johannisberg with Alex, we ended up with a giant cast iron rooster, three books about the area, a clock that also measured humidity and temperature, a hat from the World Cup 2006 (I'm wearing it in the picture), two bottles of wine (one from Alex's dad, who is vice president of the Johannisberg Castle Winery, as it turns out), four jars of home-made jelly from a sweet grandma who invited us all in, a private tour of the wine cellar at the Johannisberg Castle, and Alex, whom we brought back to the barbeque.

Leslie, Phoebe, Ben, me, Anna, with Alex in the front row. Germans don't seem to smile in pictures quite as much. Click for a bigger version.

It was just so awesome how friendly and welcoming everyone in Johannisberg was. It really made me look forward to moving in with my host family (which I do next Saturday, by the way) and really being immersed in German culture. The rest of the weekend remained awesome and we got to know and talk to lots of Germans all weekend in the restaurants and bars in the town. We've been keeping to ourselves less and less and we're becoming more and more outgoing and it's really worth it. Talking to Germans in German is very rewarding and I've already learned so much from everyone I've talked to. I hope they're learning something from me as well.

Hope everything is good by all of you. Feel free to send me an email anytime.

Cruisin' and the Weekend

2007-07-31T07:11:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

Here's my update from my first weekend in Germany. The short version: it was great.

The long version:

Friday afternoon we went for a cruise on the Rhine. It was absolutely beautiful. Hopefully the pictures can give you some idea of the scale of the valley, but it really is something to which pictures--especially my pictures--can hardly do justice. The Rhine valley is basically filled with lush vineyards, quaint towns (including one named Assmannshausen, but that's beside the point), and crumbling castles . The cruise was beautiful.

Click on the picture for a bigger version and look at the cars for perspective.

After that I went to a town called Rüdesheim and had my first Döner kebab. For anyone who loves gyros or any kind of Mediterranean food, Döner will rock your world.

Later Friday night we went to Charly's Pub and Club with the whole group of exchange students. It was kind of funny to hear the kind of American music that has made it over, but eventually they started playing good enough music so that we could dance. I think many of the locals were a little surprised to see 50 Americans in their small local Disko. Eventually they got to dancing, too. It seems that our dancing styles and theirs are fairly different. Regardless, it was a lot of fun. Some of us went back the next night and mingled more with the locals (because we were a smaller group). It was great just dancing and singing with the Germans. A highlight was singing all of the words to Emanuela by Fettes Brot (great song, if you don't know it, get it) with a German guy. He was so happy I knew it.

Then on Sunday I went mountain biking through the vineyards and some trails through the woods here with other exchange students. It was very intense but fun. It's back to school for the week but everything is still awesome here. That's all for now! Take it easy.

Views from Schloss Hansenberg

2007-07-27T06:14:00.001-04:00

Hey all,

Life is exciting here at the International School Schloss Hansenberg in Germany. The kids here are awesome, the area is beautiful, we're learning a lot and interacting with the locals, and we're having a great time. Basically we have German class every day and the rest of the time we spend playing sports, hanging out, or taking walks into town. We live such an active lifestyle here and I love it. This afternoon we're going for a cruise on the Rhine. Here are a couple pictures from in front of the castle looking out over the Rhine
valley.

Deutschland!

2007-07-22T08:13:00.000-04:00

I'm writing my first post from Germany! It is absolutely wonderful here. The area around the Schloss Hansenberg (where I'm spending my first three weeks here) is downright scenic. As soon as I can get pictures up, I will.

There's lots to do here so I have to keep it short. The only curiosity that I have to report is that the z and the y on the keyboards are switched, which is verz annozing.

I'm writing from my 31st straight waking hour as a result of the curiosities of the time zones. I woke up at 9:30 AM EST on Saturday and have been up ever since. I think it's that it was so bright and beautiful when I got here that I didn't even notice that much. I also just got back from a couple hours of intense soccer with some of the other kids on the program.

Hopefully I'll make it to bed sometime soon. It's only 8:30 over here and it's still sunny and beautiful out.

Auf Wiedersehen!

2007-07-19T11:31:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

This is my last post from the good ol' US of A for awhile.

I'm about to leave for pre-departure orientation (hanging out at a hotel near Dulles) for several days. Our flight to Germany goes out of Dulles Saturday afternoon. After I get to Germany, I'll be at language camp (at the boarding school with the castle) for three weeks until August 11th. For those three weeks, I likely won't be able to post quite as much. Bear with me.

Anyway, it's been a tremendous last summer. I'm going to miss so many things about the United States, but this whole experience will be so worth it.

I would classify my mood and outlook right now as chill and content but looking forward to it. I guess it still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving.

I hope you guys all have wonderful years of college, high school, work, family, loved ones, travel, or whatever you encounter.

Take it easy.

More preparations

2007-07-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

Here I am, 8 days from the beginning of my year in Germany. There's still a lot left to do before I go, but I just thought I'd drop a quick update about how everything is going.

I opened a student account with Bank of America (no fees, not too many restrictions) and they have this thing called the Global ATM Alliance which will basically allow me to withdraw Euros in Germany at any Deutsche Bank with no ATM fee and no conversion fee. They've got the same deal in the UK, France, China, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand with various banks, all in the local currency. So that's pretty convenient for traveling.

I also ordered 200 Euros to have before I leave. The exchange rate is absolutely killing me right now.

In the next several days I've got to figure out what all I am taking in two bags and a backpack for a whole year. And I'll need extra room for all the stuff I get while I'm over there. I heard that a lot of people give away/sell off their American clothes right before they come back to make room.

Any advice or questions? Leave a comment or email me! Until next time...

First Views

2007-06-26T23:10:00.000-04:00

So, like many of you, I have never actually been to Germany. The only images that I have of where I'm going to stay I've gotten in emails or through Google Images. So I thought I'd share a few images with you of some of the places I'll be next year. The first is a view of the private school where the three-week orientation at the beginning will be held. Note the castle in the bottom right and the rolling vineyards.

The next picture is a park in my new town, Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The park is called Flora Westfalica. The picture more or less speaks for itself.

(http://www.teutoburgerwald.de)

So, this is my general area for next year. I'm bringing my camera over, so hopefully I will be able to update with pictures often.

Welcome!

2007-06-14T23:16:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog! Here I will document some of my experiences during my year in Germany. If you're confused as to what this is all about, head on over to the FAQ.

The idea of this blog is not only to keep people updated on me while I'm out of the country for a year, but also to tell everyone what it's like over there. Hopefully some of these posts will make you laugh, but I hope some of them will make you think, too.

So, I'm starting to prepare for my trip, working out issues like money, internet, phone, etc. I've emailed back and forth with my host family and they seem very nice. I've got a brother, Fabian, who is my age and goes to the same school that I will.

I'll keep you guys updated on how the preparations for Germany go. Until next time!

***Feel free to comment on anything, email me about anything at kevinpuj at gmail dot com, no matter how well I know you or how long it's been since we last talked. I am happy to discuss my experiences but even happier to catch up with anyone.***

FAQ

2007-06-14T23:11:00.000-04:00

Who?
I'm Kevin, an 18 year-old from Fairfax County, Virginia. I went to Thomas Jefferson HSST in Alexandria, and I will be going to UVA after my exchange year.

What?
I'm spending a year in Germany.

Where?
Rheda-Wiedenbrück. It's in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen in the Western part of Germany.

When?
Starting July 19th, 2007. I'll be back sometime in July of 2008.

Why?
To learn the German language and culture, to challenge myself, and to have a good time.

How?
I'm doing this exchange through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (Official Site, Wiki) I encourage all of you to check out this program either for during high school or the year after high school. Otherwise, you can check out the Young Professionals Program on that same page, which is for anyone between the ages of 18 and 24.

What are you doing for college?
University of Virginia Class of 2012.

I'm going to try to get into the McIntire School of Commerce. I'd like to major in some sort of business (probably finance or management) and German.

Is your college ok with this year off?
Yes! Many colleges love when their students take years off. In fact, a Yale rep said "We wish we could require it of all of our students."

What are you going to be doing while you're there?
I'll be starting with a 3 week language/culture course at a rented out boarding school in the Hansenberg Castle in Hesse, Germany. Since I already know a pretty good amount of German, I'll probably be taking more advanced language stuff.

After that, I will move in with my host family in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. I'll stay with them while I'm attending the Janusz-Korczak-Gesamtschule. At home, in all of my classes, and when I'm hanging out with friends, everything will be in German.

Once I'm done with the school year in Germany, I have basically a travel voucher to catch a plane back to the US, so I can travel around Europe for several weeks before returning.